Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints 223 Bullet for coyotes

Nosler builds some lead free Ballistic Tip bullets. May be another option.

Thanks everyone. After a little research, I think I'll be using the 50g Barnes TTSX.

Good choice.

Same experience here...went back the 55 gr sp in 223..personally I would not attemp shooting a coyote with those..I have had a few failures with vmaxes and those are probably more explosive yet...

That 39 grain Blitzking is what myself and several buds use on coyotes. We have never wanted for more.

I am a big fan of the TTSX by Barnes.
However, if you do not want to load them yourself
I would suggest you give the Remington Premier Accutip in .55 grain a try. I have 3 different rifles that all shoot 1 ragged hole groups with them. I also use the 50 grain in my .22-250.
It is amazing the knock down power they have.
I buy the .223 Remington Premier Accutip at Target Sports USA for $12 per box of 20. I buy them by the case.

Anybody ever tried the 63 gr Sierra SMP on fur? I got a load with them slowed down to 2600 and Im gonna give them a spin...so to speak.

I would be real interested in how they perform for you, Ingwe.

Im pretty damn sure they'll be fine, slowed down...Ive shot a lot of fur with a 60 NBT going about 2650 and its been great...and its a more frangible bullet than the 63 SMP so I expect the best ...

We shot a lot of coyotes and bobcat in the 80's for fur money. We settled on the Speer 52gr HP that had the bigger opening in the .223 out of mini-14's, sorry I don't remember the #. They would drop them and not exit. Out of a 14" Contender it was the Hornady 50gr. SPSX. I tried several out of a .22-250 and never found a bullet that that wouldn't exit at all. I used Nosler 50gr BT's mostly, but when they failed to stay in the damage was ridiculous. I had every bit as much success with Hornady 75gr HP pushed to max (or a little over) out of my .257 Roberts as I did with the .22-250. We also tried .243's as well with the Barnes 60gr Varmint Grenade, Nosler Ballistic tips, and a couple others. These last three were best when you could shoot them a little farther out than the in-your-lap called in ones. Was totally unimpressed with Varmint Grenade in every caliber and weight we tried. Years later I am using AR's and still find the Speer 52gr works very well. The faster twist barrels of the mini or AR will cause the SPSX, Blitz, etc to come apart in flight. I think the "best" will be defendant on method of take. Called in up close I'd hands down recommend the Speer 52gr, if you're trying spot & stalk, or watching a bait pile you may find a wider window works as well.

I posted earlier in this but after reading through it I thought I'd add a little

Cast bullets
Big bores with cast bullets are a great option for pelt hunting. Back the dakotas when fox were worth a $100/each I killed quite a few of them with a Savage 99 in 300 Sav. with 170gr flatnose cast bullets, dead fox nice hide with two small holes. I paid for my 22 Hornet with that rifle.

Lead frees

Quite a few years ago WA was making noises about going lead free so I started experimenting with them. If the change came I wanted to be out hunting not sitting at home knashing my teeth over the stupid decision. I started with the Barnes 62gr VG, while accurate out of my 243 and 6mm-204 they left huge exits softball+ sized. The 55gr NBT LF worked the best for me out of the 6mm-204 and it and the 58gr V-max leaded (the only V-max I use on coyotes) are the best of the lot for KILLING coyotes and saving pelts. I have shot the 50gr Barnes VG out of my 22-204 and they work well but the sampling is small.

50gr VG killed coyote



They seem to work.

This winter I hope to try some of the 35gr NBT LF's out of my 222 Rem here on our smaller southern coyotes.

I used 52 grain SMKs for years, back when I did a lot of coyote hunting (and had something called free time).






Superbly accurate and fur friendly.

I posted this data in another section of the forum, a little late to this thread, but thought since the question of lead-free came up I'd post it here too. Cool thing about this load is it works in both my AR and my Rem 700. I haven't Chron'd it, but suspect it's 3700 fps+. It's .5 gr below book max.

40 gr Nosler BT Lead-Free
27.5 gr Benchmark
Winchester Case
WSR Primer
COAL= 2.313
CBTO= 1.918

1 ragged hole in my AR-15 @ 100 yards
.52 inch with my Rem 700 @ 100 yards

I noticed it may not fit in some AR mags, too long. I've shot coyotes with this load. All deader than last year's romance.

I believe more states will be forced to go non-lead in the future. I'm starting to see and hear rumblings of this in NY State, (where I deer hunt most years). Some are convinced that lead must come out of the environment.